|
Page 4 of 14
Acetone bath
Removing the existing wire and glue from the groove is the toughest, most tedious task in re-wiring a blade. An acetone bath will eliminate the bulk of the labor associated with stripping out the wire and glue. It is simply a standpipe filled with acetone into which you place the blade—the acetone will dissolve the glue, leaving a loose wire and a clean groove. The materials needed to make an acetone bath are a 3-foot (1 m) length of black pipe (1 ½ in or 4 cm diameter or greater) threaded at both ends, a 4-in end-threaded length of the same pipe, a threaded pipe connector, two threaded end-caps, and a tube of pipe-thread compound. All these items, as well as acetone, can be found on the shelf at a home-improvement or hardware store.
Before screwing on the cap that will be the bottom of the standpipe, apply thread compound to the threading of the pipe. This will make a liquid-tight seal and prevent acetone from leaking out. The 4-inch length of pipe, connector, and other end cap are assembled to form an extended cap that will screw on over blade tangs. Once the thread compound has cured, the pipe can be filled with acetone (a funnel is advisable to avoid spills). You want to leave the level low enough to account for the displacement of the blades when they are inserted (otherwise you’ll get acetone spilling out when you first drop a blade in). It can be useful to have one or two ‘junk’ blades on hand that you can use as ballast when stripping only a single blade.
Acetone is easily as flammable as gasoline and even more volatile, so care needs to be taken to avoid spills and not leave any quantity open to air for long. Make sure you apply enough thread compound to prevent any leakage from the bottom of the standpipe, and keep the cap on except when inserting or removing blades.
After a sufficient period of use, the concentration of dissolved glue in the standpipe will become great enough that you will need to drain and replace the acetone. While a home user can get a somewhat overly alarming picture of acetone’s chemical toxicity from reading the Materials Safety Data Sheet (keep in mind that the MSDS is intended to encompass handling of mass quantities in an industrial environment), used acetone should definitely not be poured down the drain. Empty the old acetone into a suitable, sealable metal or glass container (NOT plastic- acetone will dissolve it), and check with your municipality to find out where household chemicals may be taken for safe disposal.
|
